Enter the Dragon: Chinese Invasion
of Tibet continues..

Politically, the handling of the ‘Tibetan question’ was under Deng Xiaoping, posted in Sichuan, the Secretary of the Communist Party’s South-West Bureau, and also the Political Commissar for the 2nd Field Army. He proposed that the occupation of Tibet should also take place by sending a column from Xinjiang, through the uninhabited Aksai Chin plateau, to Ngari in western Tibet, in addition to an advance from the traditional Sino-Tibetan borderlands in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Deng and the military commander of the 2nd Field Army, the one-eyed veteran Gen. Liu Bocheng had long been comrades as leaders in the 128th Division, the PLA’s elite formation in the war against the Japanese. The 128th Division had grown to become the 2nd Field Army in the war against the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek, and the partnership between the old campaigners had always been very successful.

On January 1, 1950, the PRC broadcast a communiqué stating that the task for the PLA for 1950 is to liberate Taiwan, Hainan and Tibet. On January 2, 1950, Mao gave Deng permission to attack Tibet. All responsibility was left to Deng.

On Jan 10, 1950, Mao sent another telegram to the 2nd Field Army ordering that the preparation for the liberation of Tibet should be accelerated. It took the 18th Corps of the 2nd Field Army eight months to get ready to advance into Tibet and fight the barely trained and poorly motivated Tibetan army. One of Deng’s qualities was that he knew everything about his enemies; he certainly knew that Tibet was militarily weak, and its policies not fully united. He probably also knew that India would not intervene.

To be continued....